Building a Handoff Communication Virtual Experience for Nursing Students Using Virtual Humans

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Simulation
• Medical Communication

Background:

• Effective healthcare communication is vital for patient safety.
• Nursing students require training in accurate patient handoff reports.
• The situation-background-assessment-recommendation (SBAR) method is a standard for clinical communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop, evaluate, and refine a virtual reality simulation for nursing students.
• To assess the impact of a virtual experience on understanding handoff reports.
• To practice the SBAR communication method in a simulated clinical setting.

Main Methods:

• A between-groups experimental study involving 69 prelicensure nursing students.
• Students viewed a virtual nurse-patient interaction during a triage assessment.
• Comprehension of handoff reports was evaluated using the SBAR instrument.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in comprehension based on metacognitive learning strategies.
• Students accurately completed the SBAR instrument after the virtual experience.
• Students reported increased confidence in performing triage assessments after the simulation.

Conclusions:

• Virtual reality simulations are effective tools for teaching nursing students SBAR communication.
• The virtual experience improved student understanding and confidence in clinical handoffs.
• An unexpected finding regarding patient safety in simulations requires further investigation.